How to bake an Apple MacBook, and other recipes for extreme troubleshooting

An oven, a bag of rice and a freezer are tools more commonly associated with a Martha Stewart recipe book but desperate technology enthusiasts are using regular household items in MacGyver-like solutions to revive their dead devices.

Out of warranty and with little time to think of much else, gadget owners with little more to lose resort to creativity and some internet-led advice.

Armed with special screwdrivers purchased from Amazon, he stripped down the dead patient until he located the defective part, the logic board. After carefully extracting the organ from its cavity, he wrapped it in aluminium foil and thrust it into a hot oven (note: not a microwave oven), preheated to 170 degrees celsius. It baked patiently for the next seven minutes, or just enough time to get that golden brown Apple crust.

He left it to cool, before transplanting the recharged heart into the lifeless MacBook body.

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The moment of truth arrived. He pressed the power button: Success!

He admits the fix is temporary but plans to enjoy the last moments with his new, old friend.

"It is known that zombie-like behaviour might develop and your friend might relapse back into an unusable state," Kocjancic wrote on his blog. "Following the procedure again might help in some cases, but the fix is mostly temporary. Your best bet is to buy yourself a new one."

Bertold Schmitt, an interpreter and translator dependent on his computer gear, had a different fix recipe, at the other end of the temperature scale.

Faced with a thriving ant nest in the warmest parts of his laptop docking station, he pulled it apart and stuck the electronic componentry including the processor and power supply in the freezer overnight.

"I guess it killed the ants as and their eggs and the docking station is doing just fine," Sydney-based Schmitt said, adding he'll be doing the same to the printer-scanner shortly.

"It was their next target."

Unsurprisingly the oven and the freezer are not the tools of choice to repair all technology. That honour goes to the humble, age-old staple: rice.

The sight of a smartphone being submerged in water is enough to turn the owner's blood cold, a shock that, once subsided, is replaced by feelings of regret, despair, and stupidity.

Cue the advice to drown the soaked phone in a bag of rice, to absorb excess humidity before it can cause permanent damage. Some people also use hairdryers to dry connectors, batteries, and the inside of phones that can be pulled apart.

Patrick Lee, founder of the iExperts Apple repair chain, said the rice method is a reasonably effective way to draw out moisture.

He recommends people turn off the phone immediately, or pull out the battery, then put the device in a sealed container filled with a water-absorbing material, such as rice or the satchels that accompany vitamins. Some sites have recommended to let it rest for at least 24 hours.

"Under no circumstances should you attempt to charge the device until all internal components are dry," Lee said.

Once the rice has done its thing, cross your fingers, close your eyes, and hit that power button. If it works, count yourself lucky; If it doesn't, at least you have an interesting story to tell your friends about how you got your new phone.